Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

ACT MP Simon Court has revealed he was shot in a drug deal gone wrong in his pre-parliament life.

Senior political correspondent Barry Soper says, aged 17, Court went camping with friends - who got some marijuana.

Court reportedly wasn't involved with the deal, but that evening, the group were violently threatened by the drug sellers.

Soper says Court was seriously injured.

"The gunman, in fact, shot him in the foot. The foot apparently needed reconstructive surgery, he was in hospital for six weeks."

Speaking exclusively to Newstalk ZB, Court says he was left stranded.

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A moment of madness has marred England's World Cup round of 16 penalty shootout win over Nigeria in Brisbane.

Lauren James was red-carded in the 87th minute for stomping on a Nigerian player.

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains the controversy further.

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A small percentage of Aucklanders have been caught using phones while driving.

A six month Waka Kotahi safety camera trial across the city picked up 2.4 percent of drivers holding cell phones.

There were 242,000 potential offences, including not wearing seatbelts.

Fines won't be issued as police weren't involved.

Road safety campaigner Greg Murphy says that was with only three cameras, picking up activity at a given moment.

"So what's to say that someone that drove past that camera- 2 seconds later, picked up their phone? That person's never going to be registered by them."

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The first wave of asylum seekers will be moved to the Bibby Stockholm barge to await the outcome of their applications.

Under the controversial scheme, beset by delays, up to 500 men aged 18-65 will be housed on the barge to await decisions on their visa.

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says the barge will be docked off the Dorset coast, and the residents will be able to step off their accommodation.

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Tonight on The Huddle, Trish Sherson from Sherson Willis PR and current affairs commentator Josie Pagani joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day- and more!

Labour have announced plans for a second Waitemata Harbour crossing, with two three-lane tunnels for vehicles and a separate Light Rail tunnel. Is this plan credible coming from Labour? 

The Green Party have pitched a a New Zealand Dental Service offering free basic and specialist care to be paid for by a wealth tax. Is this a pipe dream?

Tobacco companies are financially supporting the Save Our Stores campaign, which includes a petition to "save" dairies from smokefree initiatives. What do we think of this?

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Meat exporters have been watching the global spat between the US and China, and some worry New Zealand may be caught in the crossfire.

New Zealand's leading trade negotiator Vangelis Vitalis has warned the golden weather for trade policy is over and the region has to be careful going forward.

NZME business commentator Fran O'Sullivan says tensions are high between the US and China and New Zealand won't want to get drawn into either security camp.

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Three gunmen are on the run following separate shootings in the past week.

Police are hunting 24-year-old Dariush Talagi, after two people were shot on Queen Street in Central Auckland on Thursday night.

Auckland police have also launched a homicide investigation, after a man was shot at Taurima Reserve in Point England on Saturday.

Another person later showed up at Middlemore Hospital with a gunshot wound, and police are looking at whether the cases are linked.

ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper says the uptick in shootings is unbelievable, and more Kiwis have good reason to be worried.

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West Auckland social services charity the Waipareira Trust and chief executive John Tamihere have reached their deadline to settle an outstanding loan.

$385,307 was taken from the Trust to pay for John Tamihere's mayoral campaign and Te Pāti Māori's general election campaign- in breach of the law.

NZ Herald reporter Matt Nippert says this investigation has been ongoing since the end of 2019- and Tamihere is running out of options.

"It's got the nuclear option- deregistration. Which effectively strips an entity of its charitable status and it has to pay tax again. They also get levied a tax across their net assets."

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The Finance Minister is denying there's a fiscal hole in the Government's books.

Treasury is expected to open their accounts ahead of the election, giving an accurate picture of the Crown's finances.

Grant Robertson says the Government's debt levels had been published in the budget- and they're not $20 billion in the hole.

"We have ongoing conversations, but nothing has been firmed up at all, and that's the nature of this. The economy is in better shape than it was, say, a year ago."

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I love the Auckland harbour transport plan, don’t you? Who doesn’t want to get across the harbour more easily and doesn’t want some more roads for cars?

But surely no one believes Labour’s going to do this.

Not only because they can’t deliver jack- do I need to mention KiwiBuild or Light Rail or Let’s Get Wellington Moving- but mainly because no one rational believes Labour actually wants to build expensive roads for cars.

Come on.   

Labour's spent the last six years cancelling roads and trying to convince New Zealand to build a bike-only bridge across the harbour and trying to convince us to get out of our cars.

Does anyone actually believe that they’ve suddenly changed their minds and they're all in on roads for cars? 

Not a chance. So what’s going on here?

This is straight out populist politics. They're just announcing what they think we want to hear.

Their heart is not in it. Their heart is in trains and bikes and cycleways. Which means it’s not worth the paper it’s written on.

And you’re a sucker if you fall for this. Because they pulled this trick once already.

January 2020- before most of us had even heard of Covid- Labour was on track to lose the election later that year.

They wheeled Grant Robertson out to announce the big New Zealand upgrade programme in which he announced a whole bunch of roads we desperately need.

But then they won the election. And what happened?

By July of the next year, two of the big projects were cancelled, two more have been slow walked so we don’t actually know if they’re going ahead of or not, and only one was started. One out of five.

These guys are like the online Nigerian princes of transport projects.

They asked you for money in 2020 to unlock your inheritance, you sent it and didn’t get your inheritance, and now they’ve come back three years later promising that this time you will get your inheritance.

Good luck if you think voting for them will unlock that tunnel for cars under the Harbour Bridge.

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